1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a planting method which allows planting in the field of agriculture, planting of seedling cultures for vegetable and flowering plants, planting of housing sites, planting of slopes such as at woodland paths in mountains and river embankments, planting of common yards and public gardens, parks and streets, planting in deserts, and allows sowing, by easy and reliable operations, lawns for golf courses and grounds, planting at dry area, as well as green areas of housing sites, which method is hardly affected by sprinkling and rainfall and is resistant to dryness, as well as a seedling culture mat to be used therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional seed sowing in gardens, for example, is accomplished mainly by hand or machine. In addition, it has recently become common to utilize plant seeds attached to resin cloths or the like for planting onto steep, wide slopes such as at housing sites or woodland paths.
Other methods for planting employ seedling culture mats, which comprise plant seeds anchored to various types of supports in a similar manner, as described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications No. 6-169636, No. 8-228514, No. 8-187012, No. 8-214721 and No. 8-228512. Other seedling culture mats are used in combination with water-absorbing polymers, as described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications No. 62-210907, No. 63-197720, No. 1-148111 and No. 2-16216, and Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 2-145008.
Planting by these conventional methods of the prior art tends to result in uneven distribution of the seeds, and planting with mechanical seeders or seedling culture mats has generally been difficult to apply to small areas and complicated surfaces. As additional problems, insufficient sprinkling or rainfall after seeding results in a low budding rate, while the inferior water-absorbing power of the plant seeds with respect to the water-absorbing power of the water-absorbing polymer can cause the budding rate to be low, requiring a longer number of days until budding. Conventional water-absorbing polymers may impair budding or growth, impede air or water permeability, and have low durability.
A particular problem is that withering of the budded young plants occurs if water dispersion cannot be achieved or if a drought condition continues after the plant seeds have budded. Water-absorbing polymers heretofore used generally have strong water-absorbing powers and can therefore store large amounts of water, but the plants cannot be provided with the water which has already been absorbed by the water-absorbing polymers, and the roots avoid the water-absorbing polymer and withering occurs despite sufficient water in the water-absorbing polymer.